Marcus-Ubers Defensive Team

Hey, guys! This is my first Ubers RMT. I’ve been playing Ubers for a while now; I never did very well in OU. It’s not a hugely innovative team, and all of my sets are fairly standard, but I’ve had quite a bit of success with it, peaking at >1200, which is really high for me. It is a stall based team, with Tentacruel and Ferrothorn providing the main defensive core. The two have excellent synergy together, and when combined with the Wish and Heal Bell support from Chansey and phenomenal mixed defenses of Lugia, are nearly impossible to break.

Here's an overview:​

Terrakion, the Physical Sweeper;
Kyogre, the Special Sweeper, Revenge Killer, and Late Game Sweeper
Lugia, the Mixed Supporter
Tentacruel, the Special Wall
Ferrothorn, the Physical Wall
Chansey, the... Chansey.

I usually start with this dude, mostly to get Stealth Rock up as soon as possible. Stealth Rock helps me score a ton of potential OHKO’s, breaks Lugia and Dragonite’s Multiscales, and also helps neuter Ho-Oh, who is a major threat to this team in the sun, as well as Charizard, who will utterly decimate any team unprepared for His wrath. In all seriousness, Terrakion my only and best physical sweeper, reaching a huge 714 attack stat after one Swords Dance boost, and that’s with a Jolly nature. The spread is fairly simple: Speed is nearly maximized in order to take advantage of his phenomenal Speed tier, outspeeding most commonly found unboosted threats in the metagame up to Garchomp by one point, who is safely 2HKO’d by Close Combat, and Attack is maximized to hit as hard as possible. He has nearly peerless coverage between his two STAB moves alone—topped only by Reshiram’s literally flawless coverage—hitting an absolutely huge portion of the metagame for neutral or super effective damage. After a boost, he becomes incredibly hard to stop, with even physical walls like Groudon being 2HKO’d by the right move. Physically defensive Giratina puts a stop to this set, but Giratina is stupid, so we don’t really have to worry about him. Opposing Fighting types are problematic for this set, as they can hit extremely hard with their STABs before Terrakion can strike back.

This is a pretty standard Scarfogre. There’s really not too much to say about it; it seems like every other team has one these days. It’s an excellent revenge killer, and, with the given spread, outspeeds Mewtwo, the fastest major threat to this team by one point (no one cares about Deoxys-A) and easily OHKO’s it. With its high speed and huge power courtesy of full investment into its base 150 special attack, it also serves as a terrific late game cleaner. Water Spout, as you well know, is the strongest immediate, non-recoil move in the game, being boosted by rain and STAB, is also easy to keep at full power thanks to Chansey’s Wish restoring HP and Heal Bell healing status. Ice Beam and Thunder are its main coverage options, although they don’t see too much use as a neutral Water Spout is significantly more powerful than a X2 super effective Ice Beam or Thunder, and a resisted Water Spout is more powerful than a neutral Ice Beam or Thunder. As a result, I really only use Ice Beam against dragons that take quadruple damage from it, and Thunder is only used to hit like.... Gyarados I guess? Yeah I don’t know either. However, since so little can switch into Water Spout—or even Surf, if Chansey is dead and its HP is low—safely, it is by far the preferred option. Speed is not maximized because of Kyogre’s low base speed: there aren’t really too many threats it can outspeed by investing fully, so I invested just enough to outspeed max speed Mewtwo, the fastest unboosted threat outside of Deoxys, who is stupid, who it can easily OHKO.

Lugia is primarily a support Pokemon rather than a wall. Its main job is to spread paralysis, as that helps my team immensely more than poison, the only other status it can reliably spread. It does its job as a Parashuffler beautifully, thanks to its phenomenal defenses combined with Multiscale and Sub + instant recovery, high speed, and Dragon Tail dealing super effective damage to the Dragon types that infest the tier. Its defenses are incredible, especially when combined with Substitute and Roost, whose instant recovery is incredibly helpful in order to get back to Multiscale zone, halving any damage it takes. The speed spread is essential to take advantage of Lugia’s exceptional speed tier, with this spread being able to outspeed even Jolly Garchomp, the fastest threat below it. Its high speed means it is able to Roost up to full health in order to keep Multiscale intact before it is hit by any attack, and is also helpful by removing its Flying type. This is incredibly when facing threats such as the aforementioned Garchomp or Zekrom, being able to remove its weakness to the Stone Edge or Bolt Strike, before switching to Ferrothorn.

Oh my Jesus I love this chick so much. Her special bulk is absolutely INSANE, and she’s my main Kyogre switch in. Just to illustrate, a Specs Thunder coming off a base 150 Sp Atk such as Kyogre or Palkia can NEVER OHKO, which, being super effective, is an absurd feat. Without a boosting item, Thunder cannot even 2HKO, assuming a turn of Rain Dish and Black Sludge recovery is provided between the two hits. She’s also able to sponge Draco Meteors from anyone—Timid Soul Dew Latios’s Draco Meteor, the most powerful unchoiced Draco Meteor around, maxes out at 70%— and, as previously mentioned, even super effective attacks will barely leave a scratch on her slimy hide. In addition, the support she provides between her Toxic Spikes and Rapid Spin is absolutely crucial, as so many pokemon on this team so despise entry hazards, and Toxic Spikes are incredibly helpful with dealing with hard-hitting, bulky threats such as Mewtwo, Kyogre and Palkia by wearing them down much more quickly. Tentacruel Her recovery is also incredibly helpful, being able to regain 12.5% every turn, which is doubled by Protect. This is incredibly helpful when attempting to outstall opponents, especially in conjunction to Toxic Spikes.

Best physical wall in the metagame, no contest. He serves as a counter to every physical attacker in the game outside of Blaziken and Terrakion, the former of which is uncommon and hopelessly walled by Lugia and the latter can be defeated easily by smart switching between ‘thorn, ‘cruel and Lugia. This dude is a hard counter to the Extreme Killer Arceus set that has been so popular as of late. Jolly Arceus at needs to be at +6 in order to OHKO the ‘thorn with ANY move sans Brick Break (which need to be at +4 itself) which is quite an impressive feat. He’s also a hard stop to Blissey/Chansey, as he can just set up Leech Seed and start laying down a layer or two of Spikes while also using Protect every other turn, so even if the opposing Blissey/Chansey is attacking with Seismic Toss, will still end up gaining HP every turn. In addition, Iron Barbs harms them every time they try to attack. Being a Steel type, he is immune to Toxic, which helps enormously in his stalling endeavors. He is also my only Steel type, and thus is my only Dragon resist. However, this is not really a big deal thanks to the absurd defensive prowess of Chansey, Lugia and Tentacruel. His specially defensive prowess is also surprising, as he can not be OHKO’d by Psycho Killer Mewtwo’s Aura Sphere, and always survives a Flamethrower in the rain—Fire Blast requires heavy investment in Sp Def in order to survive.

Chansey is a superb supporter for this entire team. Her mixed bulk is among the best in the game, being able to take even powerful neutral physical attacks with ease and shrug them off with Wish + Protect. The support she provides between her enormous Wishes and healing them of status with Heal Bell is crucial, especially to Kyogre, whose offensive prowess is effectively neutered by paralysis or high amounts of damage. There really isn't too much more to say about her; everyone is so familiar with the Pink Blob that she doesn't need a detailed analysis.

Threats:​

One of this team’s biggest threats is Psycho Killer Mewtwo. Thanks to his absurdly high special attack and stupid coverage, no one Pokemon on this team can claim to completely wall it, but then again, no one Pokemon in the friggin metagame can safely switch into all of its moves with the possible exception of specially defensive Giratina (lolwut) and Lugia, provided Multiscale is unbroken. However, smart switching between Chansey, Ferrothorn, Tentacruel, and Lugia will wear it down, especially if it has been (badly) poisoned by ‘cruel’s Toxic Spikes, possibly its Life Orb, or a Leech Seed from ‘thorn, all of which are compounded by Protects from the latter three. Another threat to this team is RestTalk Giratina, especially if Kyogre is dead. However, in an emergency, Giratina can be PP stalled out. Thankfully, however, that set has declined in popularity as of late. Shaymin-S can also be problematic, although she is easily revenge killed by Kyogre’s Ice Beam, and can be toxic stalled out by Chansey as long as she doesn’t get unlucky with Seed Flare. Lugia is in the same boat as Chansey, but is able to paralyze her and phaze her out, dealing heavy damage thanks to Shaymin-S’s fail defenses. Most other threats to this team are of a defensive nature. Bulky Swords Dancing formes of Arceus can be problematic if they run Sub + Recover, as if my sweepers have been taken out I have no real way to deal with them. Similarly, an opposing Sub Roosting Lugia can hurt, but is dealt with by Terrakion. Bulky Sub Roost Ho-Oh is a massive threat to my team once Kyogre and Terrakion are down, especially if the sun is out. However, if I can get in a Toxic or T-Wave it will wear down quickly.

hi, this is a pretty cool team you've got going on here, but there are several redundancies in team options and terrakion is hopelessly out of place. moreover, you lack a spinblocker, meaning you will have an excessively hard time against forretress and opposing stall.

currently specs kyogre 2hkoes everything on the team, and while chansey is cool to cleanse your team of status, specially defensive giratina can sponge two choice specs water spouts and serve as your spinblocker. opting for double phaze rather than will o wisp doubles the chance of phazing during sleep, which is hugely important when you don't want giratina to be hazard fodder when it's resting.

giratina

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terrakion has no recovery, and you still have an arceus forme to use; wall normal arceus is excellent on your team, walling ho-oh safely in the rain (although burn sucks), taking on all but mixed rayquaza (which your team can struggle with if lugia doesn't have multiscale) and extremekiller.

arceus

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without chansey cm ghost arceus stands out as a significant threat, i recommend toxic over protect on tentacruel, so when it comes as you are laying toxic spikes you can safely get up two layers then toxic and switch around.

i also recommend whirlwind over dragon tail on lugia, as subcm arceus can be a pain.

without terrakion for stealth rock i recommend putting it on arceus over roar or on ferrothorn over protect, good luck.